Mantis
Mantis was a competitor robot in Series 7 of Robot Wars. Mantis reached the second round of the main competition in Series 7 and also won the Crusher Crunch Up special event. Its name is derived from the praying mantis insect. Design The robot itself was quite quick and had three long lifters, with a massive lift capability, and a hydraulic crushing beak, meaning it could lift and crush simultaneously in a similar fashion to Tetanus. The main tactics were to grab hold of opponents and then drop them in the pit, out of the arena or give them to the house robots, but it never succeeded in either. Also, the exoskeleton could be easily hooked, and the wheels were unprotected which cost it against Kat 3. The team had first seen Robot Wars back in Series 1, but it took them many years to design Mantis. Robot History Series 7 Mantis' first battle was against fellow newcomers Jabber, veterans Infernal Contraption and 12th seeds Bulldog Breed. Mantis started the battle near the pit and banged into the Refbot. It then drove towards the rest of the competitors, deciding on which to attack. It chose to go for Jabber, piercing it and hoisting it into the air. Mantis then pushed Jabber above an angle grinder and almost out the arena. Mantis, failing to do so, carried Jabber around the arena and slamming into Bulldog Breed. Mantis, still holding Jabber, attempted to take on Bulldog Breed with Jabber already on its beak and Bulldog Breed drove away. Mantis then drove away near the bottom right CO2 Geyser. Bulldog Breed attacked them and tried to flip Jabber off Mantis's beak. Infernal Contraption also bashed into Mantis. Mantis then carried Jabber over to Sgt. Bash's CPZ and Jabber finally got out of Mantis's grip. Because of this attack, Jabber had lost drive in one side so Mantis attempted to attack the other 2 robots. Infernal Contraption separated from the group and Mantis tried to grab the nimble Bulldog Breed. Bulldog Breed then pushed Mantis into the pit release button. At that moment, mesh came out of Bulldog Breed and trailed across the arena floor. Mantis tried to harass Infernal Contraption but it got away. In the dying seconds, Mantis got a last attack on Bulldog Breed, lifting it clean off the ground. Bulldog Breed flipped itself free but then the battle ended. Mantis qualified for the next round along with Bulldog Breed. Mantis went on to face Kat 3 in the semi-final of the heat. This battle was very close. Kat 3 first missed two shots with the axe before landing a third, the spiked axe head catching in Mantis' skeletal frame. Kat 3 landed a further blow before Mantis adopted a more erratic driving style and the two chased each other. Mantis managed to get under Kat 3 and topple it but the axe-wielding robot was able to self-right. Kat 3 retaliated by once again striking Mantis' exposed innards. Mantis turned Kat 3 over again, having failed to grapple it with the claw, the latter self-righting just before time ran out. Kat 3's axe blows counted against Mantis and it lost the judges decision from lack of return damage, eliminating it from the main competition. Mantis had featured earlier in the series, in the Crusher Crunch-Up alongside R.O.C.S. and Pinser. It shoved R.O.C.S. into the side wall where it was attacked by Mr. Psycho. Mantis was then attacked by the other two, but its wide frame gave Pinser nothing to damage. Pinser roasted Mantis over the flames, but Mantis survived whilst the other two attacked each other, nearly going down the pit at one point. As Pinser immobilised R.O.C.S. with its crusher, Mantis shoved Pinser over the flames, where something exploded in flame and immobilised it, but as it attacked R.O.C.S.' immobile form, it got stuck itself. As the three sat immobile, Mantis came back to life, and was named the winner as the sole surviving robot. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 2 *Losses: 1 Series Record TeamRemoveAllComplete.jpg|The complete Team Remove-All Mantis pits.jpg|Mantis being prepared backstage at the filming of Robot Wars Series 7 Outside Robot Wars Since Robot Wars, Mantis was sold to Ade Sandercock in 2006 who then sold it in 2008 to Team RCC, a Dutch/Belgian team who competed in Dutch Robot Wars with RCC and Blackdevil Warzone, and have also owned Hannibal, Splinter and Obsidian at various points in time. Mantis has since been heavily revised in terms of armour and weaponry, still keeping the same design. Mantis fought in the 2011 UK Championships, where it fell in the heats. In June 2017, Mantis was reunited with Ade Sandercock, after nine years with the Dutch/Belgian team, with improvements including a HARDOX shell. In December 2017, the latest version of Mantis was sold to Alex Hall. Under this new captaincy, Mantis fought in five battles at Robots Live! in Grantham, towards the end of June 2018. However, it lost all of the battles, being thrown out of the arena on four occasions. Alex Hall also competes with a featherweight named Mad Rush, designed by Adam Hamilton. Trivia *Before the team decided to build a robot with a crusher, they were planning to build a fast rambot with a scoop, based on the US machine La Machine *The robot was only finished the night before the qualifiers. External Links *Team Remove-All website (archived) Category:UK Series competitors Category:Single Battle Event Winners Category:Robots from Nottinghamshire Category:Robots with Lifters Category:Robots with more Wins than Losses Category:Robots whose final appearance was a win Category:Robots with Vertical Crushers Category:Animal Based Robots Category:Robots which debuted in Series 7 Category:Robots which only fought in Series 7 Category:Robots based on Bugs